Not all shade is the same: Understanding mismatch

By Paul Grana By Paul Grana, co-founder of Folsom Labs
Shade leads to mismatch. Simple, right? Not so fast. This relationship is one of the most commonly discussed in solar design—and was a big factor in propelling microinverters & optimizers to their early market adoption. But precisely how much mismatch should you expect from shading on an array?
On one hand, some will say that shade on a single module can take down an entire string, implying a multiplier effect of 10 to 15 times. In reality, that would depend on the system wiring, and often the string would have the option to bypass that